The eighth edition of the National Science Film Festival of India (NSFFI) will be held for the first time in Northeast from February 20 in Guwahati. The five-day event is being organized by Vigyan Prasar, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India and the Department of Communication and Journalism, Gauhati University.

Addressing a press meet on Sunday, Director of NSFFI from Vigyan Prasar Nimish Kapoor said, “Our main objective is to promote scientific temper through ‘science films’ so that science is not limited to laboratories. Through the medium of films, we aim to make science accessible to the common people.”

“We have invited films from across the world which will be screened during the festival. In the non-competitive category, we have films from South Korea, USA, UK, Italy, Switzerland, France and Germany. Also, this year we received the maximum number of entries from India with 215 films,” he added.

Of the 215 films, 82 have been shortlisted in the competitive category which will be screened during the festival along with 17 international films in the National Science Film Festival .

Dr Mike Pandey, three-time Green Oscar award winner will be the Jury Chairman to select the final winners. Moreover, Pandey’s film ‘Forest – Securing the Future’ will be screened as part of the inaugural session on Tuesday.

There will also be an on-spot film-making competition where participants will get the opportunity to shoot a film of five minutes duration. The topic for this competition will be announced later.

“This is the first time that Vigyan Prasar has tied up with a University to organize this festival. And along with film screenings, there will be discussions, talks and workshops during the event,” HOD of Department of Communication and Journalism, Gauhati University Dr Ankuran Dutta said. The festival is also part of the golden jubilee celebration of the department this year.

Northeast Now is a multi-app based hyper-regional bilingual news portal. Led by a group of professionals, the digital news platform covers every inch of the eight states of northeast India and the five neighbouring countries. It is the first of its kind new media initiative in the northeast, and is based in Guwahati. As the political dynamics in the northeast is intricate and fluid, Northeast Now is always politically neutral.